Apple isn’t the only consumer electronics giant hosting a major press event tomorrow. Nokia is also gearing up to make a number of big announcements at Nokia World in Abu Dhabi, and they won’t all be new Lumia smartphones.
The Finnish firm is also expected to unveil a Windows-powered iPad competitor with a 10.1-inch 1080p display — pictured above and below — and a new music player called the “Nokia Guru” that hopes to take on the iPod shuffle.
Samsung looks to be preparing its own extended warranty plans that will provide additional coverage for its smartphones, tablets, and other consumer electronics, according to a new trademark registered with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.
Called “Protection Plus,” the service is expected to offer the same kind of protection that is available to iPhone, iPad, and iPod users with AppleCare+.
Apple’s obviously not going to rest until all of their appshave gone flat, and the next obvious contenders are the icons for Apple’s App Store apps, including the iWork suite, iPhoto, iMovie and Garageband. But what will they look like? Wonder no longer: Apple accidentally leaked their new icons on the official built-in apps page for the iPhone 5s.
Will Apple unveil the Retina iPad mini on Tuesday or won’t they? There’s been a lot of back and forth on this vital point in the past few weeks, but now, the big boys are weighing in, with The Wall Street Journal affirming that Cupertino will indeed unveil a 2048 x 1536 version of it’s 7.9-inch tablet tomorrow.
The iPhone 5s has been in limited supply, and according to many accounts, the iPhone 5c is in limited demand. But September has still been a huge month for Apple. How huge? According to one study, Apple’s share of the U.S. smartphone market has doubled in September.
What is the point of the iPad now that the iPad mini is on the cusp of going Retina? It’s Apple’s pro device: the iPad for people who want a tablet to replace their laptops, not just be a more fully-functioning e-reader.
Why is why the latest rumor to come down the pipes makes a lot of sense. It says Apple is intending on launching its own keyboard cover for the iPad at tomorrow’s event, a la the Microsoft Surface.
Eye-Fi has just added a new 32GB model to its Mobi card lineup. This means that you can now shoot for days and then, when you decide to transfer all those photos to your iPad, iPhone or Mac, sit for another few days as the pictures are sent across via Wi-Fi.
While the highlight of Apple’s press event on Tuesday will undoubtedly be its new iPads, we were also expecting the Cupertino company to announce a new Apple TV. But a new report suggests the fourth-generation set-top box has been “delayed a bit,” and that it won’t be ready for tomorrow’s event after all.
Pencil is the name of a new stylus coming from FiftyThree, the makers of the rather lovely Paper app for iPad. If the hardware shown in the FCC filing is anything to go by, then it is a design as practically minimal as the Paper app.
Buying an iPad case on the eve of an Apple iPad event is probably not the smartest thing to do, but if any case can tempt me it’s this gorgeous Folio from Dodocase. At the very least, it’s got me hoping that any new iPad minis have the exact same dimensions as the current one. In short, the Folio looks to be the perfect marriage of old and new tech.
Picatext is a Mac app that performs OCR on your screenshots. That’s it, but as you’ll see, “that” is pretty damn handy.
The iPad mini is pretty tough. Mine fell off the top of my refrigerator (around five feet high) and landed corner-first on a terracotta-tiled floor. It survived with nothing but a dent in the corner and a slightly-bent screen as it approaches this corner.
If I’d been using the SlipStopper, though, it mightn’t have fallen at all.
Fastmail, a mail device which really is fast, has just gotten even faster, and even slicker. The best alternative to Gmail just launched a brand new mobile interface that is so good that you might even ditch the native mail app on your iPhone and iPad.
Google is in the smartphone business, obviously. But are they in it to win it, or just f**king around?
Sometimes I wonder.
Google is obviously a visionary company with incredible technology and the capacity to build some of the greatest stuff out there.
In fact, Google already has created all the elements of a monster, iPhone-killing super-phone. Yet some invisible, internal company flaw seems to be stopping the company from putting all those elements into an actual phone.
The iPhone-killing elements are scattered all over different phones that Google sells, and some of the elements aren’t in the phones at all.
As a result, Google’s fans are faced with an artificial choice between this feature or that feature — or just giving up and buying either a non-Google Android phone or an iPhone for a more compelling mobile experience.
What’s stopping Google from integrating all its best stuff into a single phone that would thrill everybody and dominate the market?
Is it Microsoft-style company politics, where internal power struggles among VPs and product managers create a hyperpluralism that paralyzes the company?
I don’t know. But what I do know is that Google could completely transform the market by simply using what it’s already got.
Here are the four actions Google needs to take to use what it’s got to create the ultimate iPhone killer super-phone.
Apple has quietly updated the OS X Mavericks developer GM to a new build number ahead of the software’s imminent public release. The new build number is 13A603 while the original seed is 13A598.
Aside from some print ads, Apple’s advertising for the iPhone 5s has been quite scare compared to the iPhone 5c. Multiple iPhone 5c ads have aired on TV already, but the 5s hasn’t gotten any TV attention. Today the first ad dedicated to the iPhone 5s was finally released. The title is “Metal Mastered.”
As you can imagine, it’s all about the gold model, and the song is even by an artist named Goldfrapp. How appropriate. Liquid gold slowly forms into an iPhone like a Terminator, and the gold Touch ID ring around the home button is placed last as the finishing act.
Updates on the French and German versions of Amazon.com suggest a new, replacement Apple TV coming the day after this week’s Apple announcement — just in time for Christmas.
The prospect of a shiny new Apple TV product makes everyone think of a radical new Apple TV box with crazy new user interface options, or an actual Apple TV set, both of which people have been predicting for years.
And then that Scrooge MG Siegler comes along to say he’s hearing that the Big Apple TV Update has been delayed, and that maybe there will be a minor update to the existing product.
Whether something grander has been delayed or not, I think TV will be the most interesting product at the Tuesday announcement — not because of hardware, but because of a new software interface and new deals I think Apple will announce.
Google has updated its free Hangouts iOS app with a major feature: free voice calling anywhere in the U.S. and Canada. The app now integrates Google Voice to make calls over cellular or WiFi.
Confirmed! Apple’s October 22nd iPad event is locked and loaded, but it’s not just iPads we’re expecting to take the stage. We’ll walk you through what other treasures to expect sultry new CultCast. Then, Steve Jobs and his nights of profound amore; Apple hires a fashion icon to man retail stores; and we review a new app that makes it insanely simple to send money to anyone you know.
Have a few laughs and get caught up on each week’s best Apple stories. Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let baseline roll!
This week’s edition of Cult of Mac Magazine explores the issue of privacy in the PRISM age. Whether you have anything to hide or not, awareness of what data you are sending out and who can see it as always a good thing.
We’ve got great how-tos to about keeping things locked down in your email, browser, instant messaging and backups as well as what to know about the key privacy settings in iOS 7 and how to cover your privates with social media apps.
For those of you who have, ahem, things to hide from a snooping spouse, roommate or parent, we’ve also got you covered.
And if you think you’re an open book, we talk to an artist who broadcast his life from his iPhone screen to an open web page for an entire year. He tells us what happens when your wife gets in the act and your mother always knows what you’re up to.
Publisher Leander Kahney discusses his foray into the private lives of Apple designers while researching his latest book and our exclusive Apple Genius column discusses drinking on the job and vintage Macs.
We hope you check it out – and let us know what you think!
And now you know. That’s right, it is being reported that Apple employees internally nicknamed the gold iPhone 5s “The Kardashian Phone” during production.
New York Times reporter Nick Bilton first tweeted the revelation, saying he heard it from a source at Apple. TechCrunch then followed up with its own sources and added, “apparently this was not a serious ‘code name’ or anything, just an internal joke.”
U.S. Cellular, one of the last carriers in the country to get the iPhone 5s and 5c, has announced that it will start offering Apple’s latest handsets on November 8th. After Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular is the fifth largest carrier in the country with 4.6 million customers.
Many of the regional carriers started offering the new iPhones on October 1st, and Cricket is slated to sell on October 25th. U.S. Cellular hasn’t released pricing information yet, but expect the devices to sell for the normal retail value. Many resellers and third-party stores have already started offering discounts on the 5s of up to 50%.
Source: U.S. Cellular
I just love tower defense games. I also love Steampunk. Chillingo has just published a game, developed by DreamGate, that combines both great tastes into one great game.
In contrast to a traditional tower defense game, where you typically place towers along a fixed path to keep the bad guys from getting to your base, Steampunk Tower gets you to build up your tower’s defenses with turrets like machine guns and cannons. The creeps come at you from both sides, and it’s up to you to cleverly manage your monetary and weaponry resources to keep them from destroying your beautiful, beautiful tower.
If you’re looking to take your skill set to the next level, then lynda.com is a surefire way to do it.
No matter your line of work, these professionally produced, expert-taught video tutorials will help you learn the business, creative, or technical skills that you need. With lynda.com, you can learn at your own level – and at your own pace. And Cult of Mac Deals has secured a 14 day free trial of lynda.com for a very limited time.
Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook bought four properties surrounding his house in Palo Alto, California. He reportedly spent a cool $30 million buying four properties surrounding his house, and is leasing them back to their former owners. Irony of ironies, he did it to protect his privacy.
Nothing wrong with that, of course, except Zuckerberg presides over the greatest intentional invasion of our privacy ever devised.
Actually, maybe that’s the NSA, but nonetheless, Facebook is built on the idea that our digital lives should be public. Facebook’s default mode is to expose as much information about you as possible. All your pictures, vacation plans, school graduation ceremonies and what products and services you “like,” which are mined by commercial interests to sell products and services back to you.
I discovered the dangers of unfettered social sharing while researching my upcoming book on Jonathan Ive and Apple’s industrial design department. Digging around in Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, I found a LOT of personal information about Apple’s designers. Stuff they no doubt want to keep on the down low. These are people who are intensely private. They have very low public profiles. They intentionally keep their identities and jobs out of the public eye.
This is partly because of Apple’s draconian secrecy policies and partly to shield them from headhunters. But there’s also a large measure of just keeping their lives private. Apple’s twenty or so industrial designers are somewhat public figures, thanks to their amazing success as Apple’s primary innovators and the growing international fame of their boss. They don’t want their lives examined by a nosey snoop like me.
Some keep their Instagram feeds private, but a surprising number don’t. Some of the designers have registered Facebook and Instagram accounts under nicknames or pseudonyms. They weren’t too hard to find with a bit old-fashioned, shoe-leather reporting.
Looking through their pictures — cyberstalking them — you can see their vacations, their houses, their cars and kids and spouses. You see weddings and nights out at clubs. Skiing adventures by helicopter and surfing excursions. Trips to London or Italy’s Amalfi coast. It’s all very enviable. In fact, the pictures look just like the staged photos Apple uses on the computers at the Apple Stores. They are the real version of the picture-perfect California life.
I won’t reveal the pictures or the Instagram feeds. Although their pictures and feeds are very much out there in public, the designers are entitled to their privacy. They’ve made attempts to keep them private — or semiprivate — and I won’t violate that. There’s no reason they should be forced to hide their feeds. There’s little harm in exposing your pictures to the public. It’s easy for friends and family — or the public even — to get a glimpse of your life and activities. There’s nothing very serious that’s exposed. I could figure out exactly where they live, I suppose, but there are probably easier ways.
But it shows that we should all be aware of what we’re exposing online. My kids are quite savvy about privacy. They are careful about what they post to Facebook and tend to keep pictures with their faces offline.
In 2011, even Zuckerberg’s puppy got into the act. Beast, a white mop of a sheepdog, has his own page on Facebook. He can be seen waiting patiently for steak bits, blending in with a shaggy rug and rushing about the yard. His “mom” (Zuck’s wife Priscilla) is often incidentally pictured – maybe over a morning cuddle or carrying him down the stairs. Since August, though, the four-legged wonder has not posted a single status update. And can you blame him? Even a dog with 1.6 million likes needs a little privacy once in awhile.